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PSE: GLO

Globe Telecom recently announced the five startups whose game-changing digital solutions bested 130 other entries to make it to Globe Future Makers (GFM), a social innovation program that seeks to address the various causes of poverty in the country through information and communications technology (ICT).

The top five winners include two that centered on Learning and Education, another two on Health and Well-being, and one about Climate Change and Displacement. The winners, who came from different parts of the country, presented a diverse set of creative programs that are exceptionally unique and pioneering.

“Now that the top five winners are revealed, we can all watch them create the impact to society’s ills that we anticipated their programs will address. These initiatives are all very remarkable and significant. If they succeed, they would be of great help to the society,” said Yoly Crisanto, Globe SVP for Corporate Communications.

One startup, The Spark Project (www.thesparkproject.com), falls under the Displacement category. The Spark Project is a Filipino crowdfunding website and community founded by Patch Dulay that aims to empower local entrepreneurs and change-makers through an online platform that showcase their ventures and projects. It's a place for like-minded people to discover, support, and fund socially meaningful projects.

For Learning and Education, one of the entries that caught the attention of the judges is The Ultimate Learning Accelerator or “TULA” (www.tulaeducation.com) of creator James Centenera. TULA is on a mission to transform and modernize learning for young children by helping them improve academic performance and instilling character traits and values that are not taught in most schools but are essential for success in the 21st century.

Another Learning and Education standout is Virtualahan (www.virtualahan.com ) of Ryan Gersava. This online platform breaks down employment barriers for people with medical, physical, and mental disabilities through an intensive training to help them start working as online service providers.

Meanwhile, Milktrack and iVolunteerPhilippines (www.ivolunteer.com.ph ) are two programs under Health and Well-being that rounded up the five winners. Milktrack serves as a repository of information for mothers having difficulty providing breastmilk for their newborn or sick babies. Milktrack helps mothers look for trusted sources of breastmilk and have it delivered right at their doorsteps.

iVolunteerPhilippines is a social endeavor conceptualized and developed by JB Tan and Bel Padlan. They make it easy for Filipinos to volunteer by bridging them to various civil-society organizations (CSO).

Prizes for the winners include expert mentorship from Globe, Ashoka, and Singtel Group. The Portfolio Development team of Kickstart also helps the winners gain access to relevant startup workshops or clinics, connect them to possible partners, mentors, advisers, and investors using Kickstart’s broad network, and provide free Semaphore web-to-SMS API credits to the five teams. These assistance will allow them to build their products faster and launch sooner to benefit the communities that they aim to serve.

The Globe Future Makers program is aligned with the social innovation program of the Singtel Group of Companies for Asia Pacific. It was developed in order to influence and build a whole ecosystem of social innovators who can help create a positive impact on society with the help of technology.